CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Pittsburgh forensic pathologist, discovered the effects of repeated traumas to the head from football in 2002 by examining the brains of deceased Pittsburgh Steeler football players, most notably Steeler star “Iron” Mike Webster, whose lives had spiraled downward after leaving the game.

Former running back great OJ Simpson’s behavior over the last couple of decades or more resembles the behavior of all the CTE victims’ brains examined by him and Dr. Ann McKee, a Boston University neuropathologist. So far the total CTE brains from deceased football players is staggering.

“I unequivocally think there’s a link between playing football and CTE,” Dr. McKee said. “We’ve seen it in 90 out of 94 NFL players whose brains we’ve examined, we’ve found it in 45 out of 55 college players and six out of 26 high school players. … I’ve been able to accumulate this number of cases in football players, it cannot be rare. In fact, I think we are going to be surprised at how common it is.”

The behavioral profile coupled with OJ Simpson’s lengthy football career recently prompted Dr. Omalu Bennet to say he would “bet his medical certificate” on OJ Simpson having CTE. Cuba Gooding, who played OJ in a recent TV special “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” agrees with Dr. Omalu.

CTE is a progressive disease of the brain. It is not necessarily associated with diagnosed concussions. CTE is the result of many sub-clinical concussions.

Even with helmets, collisions cause the brain, which is not firmly attached with shock absorbers within the skull, it sort of floats, to collide with the inner part of the skull at several Gs, or several time the force of gravity.

Sustaining that sort of violent head banging over time leads to CTE. The behavioral profiles of known CTE former players is a gradual disintegration into mental disorders of various types. Recklessness, homelessness, suicides, homicides, and overall just losing it all were characteristic of most CTE victims.

Memory loss, confusion, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, anxiety and progressive dementia are symptoms of CTE. The disease can only be diagnosed after death when tissue samples can be examined for the tao protein that overcomes brain tissue within the brain.

Famous football star and ABC Monday Night Football announcer Frank Gifford died recently and his family donated his brain for CTE analysis. He was 84 when he died. It was discovered that he had CTE. Though not outwardly violent or criminal, Frank was having his share of neurological problems that only those close to him knew about.

It’s Not Just About Concussions

In the movie “Concussion” and during an NBC interview, Dr. Omalu demonstrates with a balloon in a jar how repeated jars to the head create damages that become long term with CTE. He speaks of how the balloon is the brain and the jar is the skull. Then he pounds the jar from the outside to demonstrate the balloon’s bumping against the inside of the jar.

The NFL did what they could to destroy Dr. Omalu’s reputation and image while he pursued more examinations to document CTE’s proliferation among football players. Their denial and refusal to acknowledge CTE’s existence as a byproduct of playing football over time inspired an excellent 2013 documentary by PBS Frontline, “League of Denial”.

The drama of corporate denial plus Dr. Bennet Omalu’s personal struggles motivated Will Smith’s fine portrayal of Omalu in the 2015 movie “Concussion”. Nice one word title, but misleading. Many CTE victims had few or no diagnosed concussions during their careers.

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CTE is the result of “nickel and diming” brain tissue damage with constant collisions to the helmeted head. These are internal head injuries that cumulatively lead to the brain disease CTE. The helmets protect against skull fractures, not CTE.

If you wish to explore this fascinating story and matter more, both the movie “Concussion” and the PBS Frontline documentary “League of Denial” are available from NetFlix DVDs.

Paul Fassais a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. His pet peeves are the Medical Mafia’s control over health and the food industry and government regulatory agencies’ corruption. Paul’s contributions to the health movement and global paradigm shift are well received by truth seekers. Visit his blog by following this link and follow him on Twitter here.